There are very, very few semi-automatic mass produced rifles that regularly can get 1 1/2 MOA groups at 100 yards. Add a free float rail, SS barrel and a good optic and most AR15s can put bullets through the same hole all day long at 100, and keep it under 2 MOA out to 300, even 500 yards.

Is it the design? Ballistics? I'm not a believer in "xxx caliber is more accurate than xxx", but it makes sense that a flat trajectory 3000 fps 5.56 would be easier to hit targets with at longer distances than the rainbow arching 7.62x39.

I've seen ARs outshoot bench guns before, I'm sure many of you have to. What gives?

A big part of the reason is the DI system so many seem to want to get rid of. It may have its negatives, but without a big piston flopping around inside a cylinder attached to your barrel, accuracy is a bit easier to achieve.

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.- Robert A. Heinlein

aluminum is more rigid than steel most guns are made off. along with what everyone else has said. but against bench guns? no way. not even close. They are accurate for what they are. But they are not magic.

callmenoshie: "saying that females have the potential to be "bat shit crazy" is like saying the sky has the potential to be blue."

This is a huge one. Aks lock into the reciever. Ar's lock directly to the barrel same as most bolt guns. Also, the tolerances are tight so the luckup is more the same everytime compared to other systems.

Also the DI system. The gas system (especially on an ak) will mess with barrel harmonics.

This is a huge one. Aks lock into the reciever. Ar's lock directly to the barrel same as most bolt guns. Also, the tolerances are tight so the luckup is more the same everytime compared to other systems.

Also the DI system. The gas system (especially on an ak) will mess with barrel harmonics.

Originally Posted By RFutch:So does the DI gas system really not play that much into it? Or just not as much as the locking system?

The gas system helps. Since all the movement of the gas system parts is in line with the axis of the barrel, there is no torque to change the barrel's alignment generated by the gas system. The AK rises not just because of the stock being below the axis of the barrel, but also because of its massive piston, piston rod and carrier moving backward AND above the axis of the barrel.

"--you can't conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill him."Heinlein

Originally Posted By RFutch:So does the DI gas system really not play that much into it? Or just not as much as the locking system?

The gas system helps. Since all the movement of the gas system parts is in line with the axis of the barrel, there is no torque to change the barrel's alignment generated by the gas system. The AK rises not just because of the stock being below the axis of the barrel, but also because of its massive piston, piston rod and carrier moving backward AND above the axis of the barrel.

Well, I learned something new today.

"You know what I think, don't really matter what I think. Once that first bullet goes past your head, politics and all that shit, just goes right out the window." -Hoot